I'm Just Trying To Help (A Zak Bagans Romance)

Tony

Zak was quiet for the rest of the evening.

This is exactly why nobody knows about this, with the exception of my closest family and friends. I stayed silent, watching out the window of my office, not really focusing on the picture laid out in front of me. It was a picture of Billy and Jay reviewing footage. You could faintly see Zak's shark-fin in the corner, and Aaron's bald head in the other. It was in the hotel room. The boys weren't paying any attention to me, and that's the kind of pictures I loved the most. But I couldn't even focus on the picture, I had my mind off somewhere else. My brain kept replaying that night, my scar was tingling, and I felt nauseous as Zaks works went through my mind. How can you be okay with that?

I didn't even hear the door to the office open.

“Marilyn?” Zaks voice called into the small office space. I turned to him and looked from where I was looking through the glass window, to the parking lot below – to Zak, who was standing at the doorway, still fully clothed – even though it was well past midnight. “Are you alright? I thought you said you were going to bed.” I shrugged, and leaned away from the window, dragging my feet over to my office chair before throwing myself down.

“Fine. I decided I wanted to finished editing these last few pictures for the channel.” I replied in monotone, my face unmoving from it's drained look. Zak eyed me for a moment, not moving from his original position in the doorway. Zak pursed his lips, his blue eyes worried for me.

“Marilyn, how about you go lay down. You look a little fatigued.” Zak held his hand out, and began walking to me. I shook my head, my eyes scrolling back over to the computer screen. “Come on, I'll go make you tea or something before you go to sleep.” I shook my head again, staring at the picture. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I jumped out and back of the chair, stumbling into the bookcase, books falling onto the floor next to me. Zak held his hand up in surprised. “Marilyn I-”

“I'm sorry,” I whispered, covering my mouth and running out of the room, “I'm sorry.” I locked myself in my room as the tears came rushing down my face.

Zak Bagans

I stood there dumbfounded. What had just happened? I stood there in the middle of her office, her sobs echoing down the hallway. I didn't know what to do, finally it came to realization that I should probably go talk to her. I turned around on my heel, rubbing my face with my hands before I walked down to her room and attempted to knock on the door, but her sobs covered the sound of the soft knock, “Hey, baby.” I announced softly, “Open the door."

“No,” Marilyn cried, “I'm a horrible person. I should've just died when that knife hit me.” I was taken back at this. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I should've have asked about it – I knew something like this would happen. But like always, my better judgment was always ignored. I didn't say anything for a minute as my brain searched for something to say to her.

“No, sweetie, no. Don't – I think that your amazing. I don't think you're horrid.” I attempted to console. “Open the door, come here. I want to talk to you.” When Marilyn didn't respond, I thought it would be best to leave her alone for a little bit. I went back to her office and began picking up the books that had toppled onto the ground earlier when Marilyn had bumped into the bookcase. Most of them were classics, Moby Dick, Frankenstein, Dracula (My personal favorite), and Tom Sawyer. I piled them in and put them back in the bookcase neatly before I stood up with a grunt. Something on the desk caught my eye, a sticky-note stuck to the side of the computer screen, with a MySpace URL on it. I sat down in the office chair, and being the snoop I am, opened up the internet and typed up the URL. The MySpace page was awfully gaudy, with gangster signs all over it and a blinking header reading a name that was oh so familiar. “Tony Highland”. Curiosity filled my body, and I clicked on the profile picture. I almost laughed when it loaded on the screen.